And the top 3 WHO director-general candidates are ...

After a full day of closed-door sessions, the World Health Organization’s Executive Board at last announced its three director-general nominees set to face election in May. Ethiopia’s Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Pakistan’s Sania Nishtar, and Britain’s David Nabarro made the cut, with the results released in Geneva on Wednesday evening. Tedros again took the lead with 30 votes, but Nishtar was close behind with a total of 28. Nabarro received 18 votes from the 34-member board. The results came as something of a surprise within global health circles, who favored French candidate Philippe Douste-Blazy, along with Nabarro and Tedros. When the list was whittled down to five candidates on Tuesday, Italy’s Flavia Bustreo had come in second. The loss of both Europeans has led observers to predict that Nabarro’s campaign may see a boost in the coming months. “Today's election reflected the real choices of the EB Members. European votes were divided between the three European candidates,” said Mathias Bonk, a global health consultant who shared his predictions ahead of Wednesday’s results. “Nabarro will be much stronger in May.” Just who will become the next director-general of WHO, however, will likely become harder to predict, as the final vote will no longer be just in the hands of the few members of the executive board. The full 194 WHO member countries will participate in the May election. Read Devex’s exclusive look at the stakes behind the vote, and stay tuned to Devex for more coverage and analysis on the election of the next WHO director-general in May 2017.